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Network Ten
Network Ten (commonly known as Channel Ten or simply Ten, officially stylised as TEN) is an Australian commercial television network. It first aired on 1 August 1964 in Melbourne. One of five national free-to-air networks, Ten's owned-and-operated stations can be found in the state capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to regional areas of the country. The network has been owned by CBS Corporation since November 2017. History Origins From the introduction of TV in 1956 until 1965 there were only two commercial television networks in Australia, the National Television Network (now the Nine Network) and the Australian Television Network (now the Seven Network), as well as the public Australian Broadcasting Commission. In the early 1960s, the Australian Government began canvassing the idea of licensing a third commercial television station in each capital city. This decision was seen by some as a way for the government to defuse growing public dissatisfaction with the dominance of imported overseas programming and the paucity of local content. The first of these "third" licences was granted to United Telecasters Sydney was granted on 4 April 1963. Structurally, the Australian television industry was closely modelled on the two-tiered system that had been in place in Australian radio since the late 1930s. One tier consisted of a network of publicly funded television stations run by the ABC, which was funded by government budget allocation and (until 1972) by fees from television viewer licences. The second tier consisted of the commercial networks and independent stations owned by private operators, whose income came from selling advertising time. Launch The network was launched as ATV-0 in Melbourne opened on 1 August 1964 and was owned by the Ansett transport and media group, which at the time owned one of Australia's two domestic airlines. TEN-10 in Sydney, which opened on 5 April 1965, was originally owned by United Telecasters Sydney Ltd (UTSL), which also in July that year opened TVQ-0 in Brisbane. Also opened that month was SAS-10, serving the city of Adelaide in South Australia. The new television network was initially dubbed the "Independent Television System" or ITS, but in 1970 adopted the title "The 0/10 Network" which reflected the names of the first two stations launched in the group. Melbourne's ATV was the first station of the network to stage colour broadcasts in 1967, the broadcast was that of the Pakenham races which was seen by network executives and invited members of the media and press. This would the first of many test colour telecasts for the station, and in tribute to this event, the 0-10 Network adopted the First in Color slogan in 1974, within months before 1 March 1975 transition to colour broadcasting. 1970–1988: Expansion and original run For its first five years, the 0/10 Network led a hand-to-mouth existence. By the beginning of the 1970s the network was in a precarious financial position and there were predictions that it would fail. In 1971, the 0/10 network first aired Young Talent Time, which was a huge ratings success, and ran for 17 years. However, the network's true financial reprise came about due to the adult soap opera serial Number 96, which premiered in March 1972 on the night that "Australian TV lost its virginity". The series broke new ground for Australian television and captured the imagination of viewers like few programs before or since. For the next three years it was consistently Australia's top-rating television program and, not surprisingly, its huge popularity attracted advertisers to Ten en masse, with the result that its revenue increased significantly from A$1 million in 1971 to more than A$10 million in 1972. However, the pattern of ratings dominance was already set, and for most of the next five decades from the mid-1960s there was little deviation from the prevalent rankings, with the Nine Network typically in first place, the Seven Network second, Network Ten third and ABC fourth. The gradual evolution of Network Ten into its current form has its origins in the ongoing attempts by media mogul Rupert Murdoch to acquire a prized commercial television licence in Australia's largest capital city market, Sydney. This began when Murdoch's News Ltd purchased the Wollongong station WIN Television in the early 1960s, around the same time he bought Festival Records. In 1977, frustrated by regulatory blocks that prevented him from expanding into the Sydney market, Murdoch sold WIN and purchased a 46% share in Ten Sydney. In 1979, Murdoch made an unsuccessful takeover bid for the Melbourne-based The Herald and Weekly Times media group. Although the bid failed, he gained a 50% stake in Ansett, which thus gave him control of channel 0 in Melbourne. In 1979, 0/10 first aired soap opera Prisoner, which was a huge ratings success. On 20 January 1980, the 0/10 Network became known as Network Ten to reflect ATV moving from channel 0 to channel 10 – although the Brisbane station continued to broadcast as TVQ-0 until 10 September 1988 when the station changed to TVQ-10. In 1987 Adelaide's Network Ten affiliate (SAS-10) and Seven Network affiliate (ADS-7) successfully negotiated to exchange affiliation rights and channel frequencies due to ownership problems. On 27 December 1987, the exchange came into effect and ADS-7, owned by the same owners as the main Network Ten stations, became ADS-10 with SAS-10 converting to SAS-7, operated by TVW-7 in Perth. When Murdoch became an American citizen in 1985 so that he could expand his media empire in the United States, Australia's media ownership laws obliged him to dispose of the flagship television stations, which were sold to The Northern Star, an offshoot of the Westfield Group conglomerate controlled by property tycoon Frank Lowy. However, Westfield was badly hit by the stock market crash of 1987, and in 1989 sold Network Ten to a consortium led by Charles Curran and former television journalist Steve Cosser. The network became fully national in 1988 with the launch of NEW-10 in Perth, after the introduction of satellite facilities made it economical for the network to broadcast to Western Australia. Northern Star officially took hold of TVQ-10 later in the year because of swapping frequencies with neighbouring DDQ-0 in Toowoomba and rebranded CTC Canberra under the network banner in time for aggregation. 1989–1994: Receivership and relaunch , an inner suburb of Sydney]] In 1989, Ten's ratings were in decline, so on 23 July 1989, recently recruited network boss Bob Shanks relaunched the network and introduced several new programs, including four new prime time game shows. However, by the end of 1989 the ratings had failed to improve and most of the new programs were cancelled, except for its Eyewitness News newscasts, Neighbours and E Street (debuting in late 1988). Meanwhile, owners Northern Star Holdings were having financial and regulatory problems. The company was subject to an inquiry by the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal in relation to media ownership rules and had run into financial difficulties following the 1987 stock market crash two years earlier. On 1 September 1989, Northern Star Holdings announced a major restructure to pay off debts and help restore profitability. The proposals included selling off the network's three smaller stations; ADS Adelaide, NEW Perth and CTC Canberra to Charles Curran's Capital Television Group. The sale was complete on 27 October 1989, effectively splitting Northern Star's Network Ten in half. In September 1990, Northern Star filed for receivership and in January 1991 Ten was relaunched yet again with the first version of its present logo. The network entered liquidation in May 1991. In 1992, the network's flagship stations were sold to the Canadian-based Canwest media group, which held a controlling stake in the network until 2009. Also in 1992, the network commenced a strategy of targeting younger audiences. The Adelaide and Perth stations were re-acquired by the network in 1995. With the network having financially recovered, Ten Network Holdings floated on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1998. At this time, Ten had affiliate broadcasting agreements with Southern Cross Broadcasting in southern New South Wales, regional Victoria and Tasmania, and with Telecasters Australia in northern New South Wales and regional Queensland. 1995–2007: Recovery and success In 2001, Ten opened its doors to the Big Brother Australia house and with it reality television, the opening night of Big Brother became the most watched programs of the night. The trend was then followed by launching the Australian version of reality singing competition format Idols called Australian Idol in 2003. Australian Idol was a hit for several years, lasting until 2009. In 2004, Network Ten enjoyed its best year since the 1970s, winning two ratings weeks (out of 40) and finishing second nationally only behind the Nine Network and well ahead of the Seven Network. This was a departure from previous years, in which it typically places third behind Nine and Seven in most other ratings years since 2000. In 2005, Canwest was in discussions with newspaper publisher John Fairfax Holdings about a possible sale of the network, after the federal government indicated it may consider relaxing Australia's media cross-ownership laws. Previously, newspaper owners could not own television stations in the same city. Fairfax owned the Seven Network until 1988, and had been looking for a way back into television for a long time. On 21 August 2005, the network celebrated its 40th birthday with a two-hour highlights package called Ten: Seriously 40, which was hosted by Bert Newton and Rove McManus. From 2006 to 2008, Ten was the official broadcaster of Sydney New Year's Eve. The rights returned to the Nine Network from 2009. On 7 August 2007, Network Ten and Foxtel signed a new agreement allowing Ten's digital signal to be transmitted via Foxtel's cable and satellite services. Prior to this, Ten was only transmitted via cable on Foxtel in an analogue format and Austar in standard definition digital via Mystar. Similarly in October 2007, Network Ten and Optus announced that Ten's digital signal would be available on its cable network from 1 December 2007. 2007–2015: Digital horizons On 16 December 2007, Ten HD was officially launched as a breakaway channel, becoming the first new commercial television channel in metropolitan areas of Australia since 1988. Ten HD ceased broadcasting on 25 March 2009 when it was replaced by what was a sports-only High Definition channel, One HD. On 24 September 2009, Canwest announced that it was selling its 50.1% stake in Ten Network Holdings for A$680 million, to pay down its significant debt. In late 2009, Canwest filed for creditor bankruptcy protection, due to C$4 billion mounting debt across radio, television broadcasting and publishing assets in several countries. On 20 October 2010, four years after he sold shares in PBL Media to private equity firm CVC Asia Pacific, James Packer purchased 16 per cent of Ten. Network Ten launched a new digital channel, Eleven, on 11 January 2011. The channel is aimed at a "distinctly youthful" audience between the ages of 13 and 29. Neighbours and The Simpsons were high-profile programs migrating from Ten to the new channel. The channel was a joint venture with CBS Studios International, which owned a 33% stake. On 8 May 2011, Ten relaunched its sports based channel One, with general entertainment programming aimed at males taking over the schedule. It is aimed at a similar audience to 7mate. In 2012, Ten unsuccessfully launched many new programs. This led to Ten's ratings dropping to fourth place behind ABC for over thirty straight nights. The poor performance resulted in Chief Programming Officer David Mott's resignation. In late 2012, Ten reported a loss of $12.9m as it battled poor advertising markets and failed to hold larger audience numbers. They made positions at the station redundant and said that production may become centralised. Analog broadcasts ceased on 10 December 2013. On 15 June 2015, Foxtel (co-owned by News Corp) bought 15% shares in Ten Network Holdings, pending the approval from the ACCC. Prior to the acquisition, Discovery backed out from bidding partnership with Foxtel. In July 2015, Paul Anderson was announced as the new Chief Executive Officer. 2016–2017: New affiliation and financial troubles A high definition simulcast of Ten was revived on 2 March 2016. As a result, One began broadcasting in standard definition only. Following the announcement of a new affiliation agreement between the Nine Network and Southern Cross Austereo, Ten's then-primary regional affiliate, on 29 April 2016, Ten entered into affiliation talks with Nine's then-primary regional affiliate WIN Television. Ten's new five-year affiliation deal with WIN commenced on 1 July 2016. WIN carries Ten programming into regional Queensland, Northern NSW, Southern NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory and the Gold Coast. WIN owner and Ten's largest shareholder Bruce Gordon positioned himself to increase his ownership stake in Ten, subject to changes to media ownership laws being passed. Following Ten Network Holdings reporting a $232 million half year loss, billionaire shareholders Lachlan Murdoch, Bruce Gordon and James Packer withdrew support for $250 million guaranteed loan that would help keep Ten out of receivership. This loan was intended to replace an existing guaranteed $200 million loan that expires in December. On 13 June, Ten asked the Australian Securities Exchange that their stock be placed in a 48-hour trading halt while it assessed its options concerning receivership. It went into voluntary administration the following day. On 28 August 2017, Ten's administrators announced that US media company CBS Corporation (which had a 33% share in channel Eleven and was Ten's largest creditor) had entered into a binding agreement to purchase the company for $123 million. CBS refinanced Ten's existing debt including guarantor fees to billionaire shareholders James Packer, Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon, and existing loans from the Commonwealth Bank. Shareholders in Ten Network Holdings lost their investment. Gordon and Murdoch, whose joint bid for the company has not been accepted, challenged the administrators' decision in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. At a meeting on 12 September, Ten's creditors overwhelmingly voted in support of CBS' bid, citing concerns over Murdoch's previous management of Ten and talk of mass job cuts in the news department under Murdoch ownership. The CBS acquisition was completed on 16 November 2017, when the shares of Ten Network Holdings were transferred to CBS Network Ten BV, a company registered in the Netherlands.CBS Corporation Completes Acquisition Of Ten Network., Ten Network Holdings, 16 November 2017. Request For Removal From The Official List, Ten Network Holdings, 15 November 2017. Programming Ten's current Australian program line-up consists of series such as: Neighbours, Australian Survivor, I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, Shark Tank, Gogglebox, MasterChef Australia, Have You Been Paying Attention?, Family Feud, The Project, Bondi Rescue, Bondi Vet, The Living Room, The Bachelor Australia franchise (which consists of The Bachelor Australia, The Bachelorette Australia and Bachelor in Paradise Australia) and morning chat show Studio 10. As an independent company, Ten had a long-standing relationship with CBS Studios International for Australian rights to its content. Ten also held over-the-air rights to selected 20th Century Fox programming such as The Simpsons, although in October 2017, Fox ceased its output deal as a side effect of the network's bankruptcy and CBS acquisition. News and current affairs camera operator filming a traffic piece in Sydney by Vic Lorusso]] Network Ten's news service is called Ten Eyewitness News (previously Ten Evening News, Ten News and Ten News at Five). It produces local bulletins each weeknight and national bulletins on weekends. The news service also produces nightly panel show The Project. During weekday overnights, Ten rebroadcasts CBS's news and current affairs program CBS This Morning. Ten has access to CBS News stories for international news coverage. Sport Ten is a major player in Australian sports broadcasting. All sports broadcasts on Ten and its multichannels are labelled under the Ten Sport brand. Ten's most popular recurring sporting events include the A-League (since 2017), Socceroos (since 2018), Big Bash League (since 2013), Women's Big Bash League (since 2015), Wallabies (since 2013), Supercars Championship (since 2015), Formula One (since 2003) and MotoGP (since 1997). In 2002, Ten combined with the Nine Network to acquire free-to-air broadcast rights for the Australian Football League, the elite Australian rules football competition, displacing the Seven Network which had held the rights for more than 40 years. Ten broadcast Saturday afternoon and Saturday night games and had exclusive rights for all finals games. Along with the Seven Network, Ten placed a successful $780 million bid to jointly broadcast the game from 2007 to 2011. Under this deal, Ten continued to broadcast the Saturday component of the competition. However, unlike the previous deal, Ten did not hold the exclusive rights to the finals series. Instead, the networks shared the broadcasting of the finals series and alternated the broadcast of the grand final. In the years when Ten did not televise the Grand Final (2008 and 2010), it telecast the Brownlow Medal presentation. Ten ended AFL broadcasting at the conclusion of the 2011 season. Network Ten broadcast the 2007 Rugby World Cup. In 2003, Ten started broadcasting the Formula One World Championship after the Nine Network dropped the rights in 2002 after more than twenty years of coverage. Big Bash League games are currently broadcast in Australia by Ten. In 2013, Ten paid $100 million for BBL rights over five years, marking the channel's first foray in elite domestic cricket coverage.New Big Bash League broadcaster Channel Ten thrilled with ratings for season opening derby heraldsun.com.au. Retrieved on 25 November 2015. Ten previously held the broadcast rights to the Indian Premier League. Network Ten, in joint partnership with subscription television provider Foxtel, had broadcast rights for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Network Ten acquired broadcast rights to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia for AUD$20 million after all three major commercial networks pulled out of bidding on rights to both the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games due to cost concerns. The Nine Network had lost AUD$22 million on its joint coverage of the 2012 Games with Foxtel, and the Seven Network's bid was rejected for being lower than what Nine/Foxtel had previously paid. Availability Network Ten is available in standard definition and in 1080i high definition. Ten's core programming is fibre fed out of ATV Melbourne to its sister stations and regional affiliates with TEN Sydney providing national news programming. The receiving stations and affiliates then insert their own localised news and advertising which is then broadcast in metropolitan areas via Network Ten owned-and-operated stations, these include TEN Sydney, ATV Melbourne, TVQ Brisbane, ADS Adelaide, and NEW Perth. Ten programming is also carried into regional Australia by various affiliate networks and stations including WIN Television, Southern Cross Ten, and Darwin Digital Television. Ten HD The Ten HD multichannel was launched on 16 December 2007 until 25 March 2009 and later revived on 2 March 2016. It broadcasts identical programming to Ten, but in 1080i HD. Tenplay Tenplay is a free video on demand and catch up TV service run by Network Ten. The service became available on 30 September 2013, replacing Ten's old website that offered limited catch-up TV services. Tenplay is available on the web and via apps for mobile devices, smart TVs, set-top boxes and video game consoles. On 21 January 2016, Tenplay started live streaming beginning with Studio 10 every morning at 8.30am until 11.00am and Highlight show every Weekends at 9.30am to noon, Every afternoon block between 3.30pm until 7.30pm originally between 4.30pm to 7.30 before adding cooking shows, after 7.30pm it starts broadcasting the major reality shows (e.g. I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, MasterChef Australia, Shark Tank, Australian Survivor). It also broadcasts live streams of Sport (e.g. Supercars, Formula 1, Moto GP and Rugby union). Controversy For the 2006 series of Big Brother, Ten appointed two censors to review the show instead of one. The Federal Minister for Communications, Senator Helen Coonan, was reported to have said that she would be keeping a "close watch on the show's 2006 series". This controversy resulted in Big Brother Uncut being renamed Big Brother: Adults Only for [[Big Brother 6 (Australia)|the 2006 season of Big Brother]]. In two separate findings, the Australian Communications and Media Authority determined Network Ten breached clause 2.4 of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice. These two breaches were in relation to the broadcast of Big Brother Uncut on 30 May, 13 June and 4 July 2005. The broadcast material was not classified according to the Television Classification Guidelines. Despite toning down Big Brother: Adults Only significantly in comparison to 2005, the series continued to attract controversy. After Big Brother: Adults Only was abruptly cancelled several weeks early, a subsequent incident of alleged sexual assault in the house saw the removal of two housemates and a huge public outcry calling for the series to be cancelled entirely.(3 July 2006), "Big Brother in bigger bother", The Age, Retrieved 4 July 2006. This incident generated significant publicity for the show, even prompting the Prime Minister of Australia to call on Network Ten to "do a bit of self-regulation and get this stupid program off the air." Just prior to the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Network Ten broadcast 911: In Plane Site, a documentary that examined conspiracy theories about the terrorist attacks. Federal Labor politician Michael Danby demanded that the programming director of the station be sacked. On 8 October 2008, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found Network Ten guilty of breaching the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice by using subliminal advertising during the broadcast of the 2007 ARIA Music Awards on 28 October 2007. Network Ten had inserted single frames (lasting 1/25th of a second) into the program broadcast. This was exposed on ABC's Media Watch program. Logo and identity history From 1964 to 1984 Network Ten's four stations – ATV-0/ATV-10 Melbourne, TEN-10 Sydney, TVQ-0 Brisbane and SAS-10 Adelaide – used different logos to identify themselves. There had also been a number of network-wide logos used from the mid-1960s through to the early 1980s. By late-1984 ATV-10, SAS-10 and TEN-10 were all using the same logo – a circle with "TEN" in the centre, somewhat in the style of a neon sign. This logo had been introduced by TEN-10 in January 1983, was adopted by ATV-10 in June 1984 and by SAS-10 in November 1985. The logo was also similar to the new logo adopted by Brisbane's TVQ-0 in April 1983, when that station became branded as TV0 – a neon sign-style circle with "TV" in the centre. Kicking off three years of some upheaval for Network Ten, On 24 January 1988 ATV-10, ADS-10 and TEN-10 all adopted the "X TEN" logo, followed by Perth's NEW-10 when it launched in May 1988, then TVQ-0 which adopted the logo on 10 September 1988 when it changed frequency and became TVQ-10. On 23 July 1989, the network rebranded again to "10 TV Australia". On 13 January 1991, in conjunction with their "The Entertainment Network" promo, all Ten stations were rebranded to the first version of the current Ten logo, which consisted of a blue circle enclosed in a grey ring, with "ten" written in the centre of the circle in lower case, yellow text. When Ten relaunched its graphics to the "Electric" ident on 31 October 1999 the ring changed to yellow. The current variation of the logo was introduced on 22 June 2013, removing the yellow accent from the ring and lettering, replacing it with light blue and white. File:Channel Ten logo (1980-1983).png|ATV10: 20 January 1980 – 3 June 1984; SAS-10: 1983-1984 File:Channel Ten logo (1983-1988).png|TEN-10: 1983 – 24 January 1988; ATV-10: 3 June 1984 – 24 January 1988; SAS-10: November 1985 – 27 December 1987; ADS-10: 27 December 1987 – 24 January 1988 File:Channel Ten logo (1988-1989).png|ATV-10, ADS-10, TEN-10: 24 January 1988 – 23 July 1989; NEW-10: 20 May 1988 – 23 July 1989; TVQ-10: 10 September 1988 – 23 July 1989 File:Ten 1989-91 logo.jpg|23 July 1989 – 13 January 1991 File:Ten_1991_logo.png|13 January 1991 - 31 October 1999 File:Channel Ten logo 1991.png|31 October 1999 – 22 June 2013 File:Channel_Ten_logo_2013.png|22 June 2013 – present Identity history (national) *1970: Make Love, Not Revolution (used as a response to Seven's Revolution campaign) *1974-1975: First in Color (ATV-0, SAS-10, and TEN-10 only) *1974-1975: Color Your World with Channel 0 (TVQ-0 only) *1977: I Like It! *Summer 1977/1978: Keep Your Eye on the 0 (ATV-0 and TVQ-0 only) *1979-1980: Come Up, Come Up to Ten (TEN-10 and SAS-10 only) *1980 (Melbourne), 1981 (Adelaide): You're on Top With Ten! *1981: Looking Good (also used by CBS in 1979) *1982: Reach for the Stars (ATV-10 only) *1983-1986: You're Home When You're Home on Ten *1985-1988: Ten out of Ten Australia *1987: On Ten, We've Got It Together (Melbourne only) *1988: We're for You! (Ten's for You) *1988: Brisbane Style (TVQ-10 only) *1989: Look! You've Got a Friend on Ten *1989-1991: 10 TV Australia *1990-1994: The Entertainment Network (also used by CTC-7 and RTQ-10/7/4) *1991: That's Entertainment! *1992: This Is It! *1993: It's on TEN *1994: That's TEN! *1995-1997: Give Me Ten *1998-1999: Turn Me On *1 February 2001 – 22 June 2013: Seriously Ten *22 January 2012 – 22 May 2012: Turn It On (accompanied in promotional trailers by "Turn Me On" by David Guetta) *22 June 2013 – present: Turn on Ten *2014: Ten, 50 Years Young See also * List of Australian television series * Ten HD * Eleven * One References External links * *Corporate website *Official YouTube channel T T T Category:English-language television stations in Australia Category:Network Ten Category:CBS Corporation subsidiaries